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In the fictional country of Atropia (which is actually a training facility in California styled to resemble an Iraqi village), few people take their jobs as seriously as struggling actress Fayruz (Alia Shawkat). She knows there’s something twisted about roleplaying as a chemical weapons expert for the benefit of soldiers visiting Atropia before they’re deployed to fight in the real, ongoing Iraq War. But it’s a paying gig where she happens to be falling in love with a fellow pretend insurgent (Callum Turner). Though Atropia gets unwieldy between its romantic and satirical modes, it nails the Bush era’s “patriotic” madness.












